According to the L.A. Times, the Lakers will name Mike D'Antoni their new coach. D'Antoni reportedly signed a four-year deal with the team.

With all signs pointing towards a Jackson return, reportedly the 11-time NBA champion coach was just asking for too much. Jackson's health issues have been well documented and according to numerous reports, Jackson was hoping to arrange a special travel schedule to accomodate him.

According to the report, Jackson was "asking for the moon."

By that account, it sounds like it's not Jackson who turned the Lakers down, but the Lakers who turned Jackson down. Which is a very interesting twist.

So the Lakers turned to their next choice, D'Antoni, who has a good relationship with Steve Nash and is regarded as one of the top offensive minds in the game. With the Lakers working to fit in new pieces, D'Antoni is likely seen as a coach that can maximize the offensive talents the team has on the floor.

D'Antoni reportedly interviewed with the team on Saturday by phone.

There is some complication as D'Antoni is recovering from knee replacement surgery and isn't expected to be on his feet until December.

How does D'Antoni fit? Here's what Zach Harper of CBSSports.com wrote:

The Lakers weren't a bad offensive team to start the season, so it's easy to say D'Antoni isn't going to fix that. You also need more than a couple of practices to get D'Antoni's system implemented, although Nash's presence can certainly help direct traffic and explain where guys need to be. It might not take as long as it would with an unfamiliar point guard.

Aside from D'Antoni being a very good coach, I'm for the Lakers pursuing him because it would give them an identity their star players can embody. An identity has been missing so far this season. Not sure how many other available coaches can instill that right away.

What the Lakers tried to do under former coach Mike Brown was install an offense based around off-ball movement and cutting, when the strength of the team was seen in the pick-and-roll game. Something of course that's a strength of D'Antoni's system.

The Lakers fired Mike Brown on Friday, just five games into the season after the team started 1-4. Under interim coach Bernie Bickerstaff, the team has gone 2-0.

You don't fire Mike Brown for Mike Dantoni. Phil Jackson yes, Mike Dantoni no. They say its a 4 year deal, but we will see how long he lasts. Regardless it should be fun.

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It is being reported as 3 yr/12million with team option for 4th year.

Nash is up in 3 years not coincidentally.

Sounds about right.

This hire was all about Steve Nash, and trying to get some productivity out of him as it wasn't happening with Mike Brown.

When you have a veteran team you have to bring in a coach they want to deal with, and if nothing else MD fits that mold. Whether it works or not who knows, but there will be no Kobe death stares at him which is progress from where they were a few days ago.

It makes sense to a degree. Offensively they have the most talent in the league, and D'Antoni has been successful on the offensive side of the ball. He re-joins Steve Nash, which had to be a solid selling point.

L.A already has invested everything into this season, I would have went above and beyond to get Phil Jackson back into the fold.

L.A already has invested everything into this season, I would have went above and beyond to get Phil Jackson back into the fold.

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I would normally agree, but from what is coming out Phil wanted to be able to skip certain road trips and have his hand picked successor coach those games, as well as have significant say over personnel.

Couple those demands with wanting a reported $12-15 million a year salary and it just sounds like it was a bridge too far.

The travel restrictions thing to me would have been the dealbreaker. You have to be there every night to coach the team, and if that was even a question in his mind then his heart clearly wasn't in it and he was just looking for a big payday.

MD has had much mOre talent then MB with less results. But he was in the west playing against some really tough teams. MB should never have been hired by the lake show in the first place. But firing him for MD might not be the smartest thing they could have done. MD needs youth and shooters (as mentioned by previous poster) and the lakers don't have that.

Actually I like this hire. Hard to argue with Phil Jackson's success, but I will. I think the Lakers are already too far into the season to switch to the triangle offense which Phil is so famous for. I know Kobe, MWP and Gasol all know the offense but Nash and Howard do not. Given Howard's mental aptitude I have serious doubts about him picking it up. Also the Triangle offense minimizes the role of a PG, with Steve Nash, why would they want to do that? I don't think that's the best system for them to run right now.

D'Antoni's system is 1 step above street ball. Get out and run and forget about defense. All these players know how to run D'Antoni's system, it's been every coach in their entire life that's tried to teach it out of them. I think the transition will be much smoother than you think. I also think they will be extremely fun to watch and very dangerous. They are going to play games that make their opponents out score them. Try out scoring a team of Kobe, Nash, Howard and Gasol. The major concern I have with it, are they in the right physical condition to do this on a night in and night out basis? They may be able to sustain it for part of the season but come the end of the season and in the playoffs, will they be out of gas?